Debit and credit cards are so last year. Checks have all but crossed the line into social taboo. And cash is basically, like, archaic.

Ugh, it’s like retailers don’t even want our money.

But wait! A few days ago, a Pew study found that 65% of surveyed tech critics and stakeholders believe mobile payments will replace cash and credit by 2020.

Even though mobile payment is still in its infancy, it seems like everyone is hopeful about its future, especially when it comes to improving the process with updated technologies.

Unfortunately, good citizens, we have cynics among us – those who worry about things like security, standardization, and the cost of new gadgets.

But fear not. We wouldn’t want you stranded in the Dark Ages of outdated currency. With this handy guide, follow us into the realm of information so you, too, can help welcome this brave new, digital-financial world.

What Is This Sorcery?

Put down the torches and pitchforks, townspeople. Brands that you already know and love have signed on to create promising mobile wallet apps, using these new technologies:

NFC, or Near-Field Communications, allows you to pay simply by waving your mobile phone at an NFC receptor at the register.  RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, is like NFC but can be used at a longer range. And 2D barcodes can even be scanned at the register from a customer’s phone to charge a pre-paid account.

Rather than producing your credit card at every purchase, mobile wallet apps store your financial data and use these technologies to pull it for you automatically, at the point of purchase.

The Google Wallet app, which uses NFC, currently only works with Citi Mastercard and the Google prepaid card, but it does sync with your Google Offers and hopes to soon hold all card types.

Acceptance is liberation. (credit: fullissue.com)

Like Google Wallet, ISIS, a joint venture of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, will also use NFC and will hold credit cards, loyalty cards, and promotions.

PayPal also plans to release its PayPal Wallet app soon. Unlike Google Wallet, it won’t use NFC but will let you change your payment method up to 7 days after you pay.

These apps will soon be able to hold multiple card/account numbers and allow you to choose which account you’d like to charge when you wave your phone at the receptor. They will also have the ability to store coupons, receipts, and past purchase information to facilitate discounts and returns easily.

However, as mentioned earlier, there are dissenters. They wonder if it could be easy for someone to access your bank accounts just by waving their phone near yours (no.) They don’t want to have to buy NFC-enabled phones (they’ll change their minds). And they complain about the lack of standardization in mobile payment technologies (ok, that might be a good point).

How Can Marketers Conjur This Black Magic?

What the dissenters don’t see is that evolving mobile payment platforms are prime real estate for marketers!

Imagine the ease of distributing targeted promotions! Using NFC, mobile wallet apps can already track a consumer’s location and purchase history, allowing brands to send her coupons for the store she’s browsing in or updates on items she frequently purchases.

Think of the social media integration! What if a check-in immediately rewarded her with a coupon loaded to her mobile wallet, and her purchase was discounted automatically at the register? And if she allows Facebook to post which coupons she was receiving, not only would it encourage more check-ins, but it would encourage her friends to adopt the app, too.

Plus, there’s potential to move into other forms of media – MasterCard’s QkR app can pull purchasing information from just about anywhere, including QR codes, TV signals, and the Xbox Kinect. Praise technology of the future!

Say NO to the tyranny of physical currency! Demand your NFC-enabled smartphone today!

(credit: venturebeat.com)

The opportunities of mobile payment are looking promising. While the technologies and full capabilities of the apps are still to be cemented, brands are sure to see significant benefits when the rough edges are smoothed out regarding standardizations and security misperceptions. But, once mobile payment technology is ready for the mainstream, brands can use it to inspire action and usher in the glorious age of mobile finance!

Click the image below for the full-size infographic!

Who’s Talking?

Someone needs to spread the message. Called connectors, accelerators and influencers, they have deep and wide social networks and pass along information they care about to others. The key is to tap into the right people for your specific product or service. Here are three types of “go-to” people:

Enthusiast. The stereotypical brand advocate who serves as a passionate brand ambassador.
Local Expert. The know-all about a specific category—car or gadget nut, knows about new restaurants or TV shows.
Jack-of-All-Interest. An interesting know-a-lot vs. an annoying know-it-all.

What Are They Talking About?

First of all, forget everything you learned about traditional brand management. If this process starts by trying to convert a well-crafted brand statement into a word-of-mouth campaign, it won’t be successful. The product or service must be looked at through a different lens.

It’s not what you want to say about your product or service, but what consumers find talkable about it. Finding the relevance in a product or service is crucial. If it’s relevant, the more likely it will be deemed worth sharing. Once something is worth sharing, it has value. High-involvement categories tend to increase information value. The collision of talkability and relevancy becomes the social currency in the message.

Dig deep to understand the consumer. Think about what people like to talk about, why they like to talk, and how an actual conversation might transpire. Remember the book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray? It’s quite appropriate when creating word-of-mouth messages.

When developing word-of-mouth messages directed toward men, think in terms of Guysmanship. Male word-of-mouth triggers tend to be competitive, fact-based and opinionated. Men talk to “show that they know” or “be first.” Look at ESPN or read the sports page—facts and opinions are expressed in sound bites.

For women, it’s all about Fempathy. Female triggers are more empathetic or deal with community building and emotional outreach. They talk “to help” and “to be heard.” And far from sound bites, their conversations are centered on shared experiences and expressed as complete stories. It’s Oprah and Lifetime and their stories of women facing their challenges, from the life-changing to the day-to-day.

So Get to It.

Find the right people to spread the word. Craft the right message that’s talkable and relevant. Activate it using the tactics most appropriate for the topic. There’s a world of technological options; be sure to find the tools that will best seed or spark the conversation. And remember, the true magic lies in the social currency of the idea—it’s what keeps the idea moving to others.

Today’s post is by Jaclyn Gordyan. Senior Art Director and perpetually curious mind, discover more about her at Upshot’s main site. Follow Jaclyn on Twitter @JGordyan.

All the Peeps, Jelly Bellys and Cadbury Creme Eggs have been eaten. So what’s one to do during the afternoon Easter lull? Kick it on the couch with the NBA playoffs and hit Facebook. Yup. Wait a minute, what’s this in my Facebook news feed- Bonobos is having an online Easter Egg hunt? For cash? I’m so game.

Bonobos (a high end online menswear store) offered Easter themed promotional codes, but you had to find them first. The promotion leveraged the idea of a digital Easter egg hunt but by making you work for the codes, it became a game. An addicting one. Oh look at that, it plays beautifully into our 2011 ‘Game On! trend’. Their promo codes were distributed in an unexpected way that effectively sparked their consumers’ curiosity. It was almost too effective, as the grand prize was found just 15 minutes after the promotion went live. Lesson for those launching a game- prepare for quick wins.

Back to the hunt. They don’t even sell women’s clothes, but had you better believe I was in it to win it. A ‘friendly’ competition between myself and friends heated up to find any code, but mainly the $500 egg. We happily (and feverously) surfed their site, fast becoming intimate with the product lines, and site navigation. This obviously added value to their brand by giving us a welcome distraction from the holiday afternoon lull. Alas, I lost*. The anecdote is just a small example of how consumers are willing to ‘play the game’ and engage with brands. So where was the ‘Golden Egg’? [SPOILER ALERT] It was right under our noses… err… fingers in the HTML code. You heard me correctly. A picture of a goose laying a golden egg with the promo code below it was created in simple text (see below). 

The only hiccup in this hunt was smart phone or tablet users were at a disadvantage having to jump through bigger hoops to see the goose in HTML code. But that’s what the other hidden $25-$100 promo codes were for. The brand still won with an inevitable lift in page hits and fans. Brilliant.

A few candy companies such as M&M, and Cadbury held online Easter egg hunts in years past, but their executions were obviously targeting different demographics.

*Note: My friend wasn’t the official winner as someone had already found & used the Golden Egg promo code. But he can still hold bragging rights over my head. Sigh.

Well, this kind of blows my old Super Nintendo soccer game out of the water.

Check out the trailer above for I AM PLAYR, a game that’s currently in development, but slated for a beta release this year.

There’s a lot happening here, but we’ll try to give you the gist. The game is a first person narrative of a football player (the soccer kind) who’s just getting started, and has to face numerous challenges on and off the field. While you develop your skill set and compete in matches, you’re also tasked with managing your teammates, your social life, and… well… your more “intimate” fans.

While that’s certainly an interesting storyline, it’s also only the first chapter. As players navigate their character through the game, they compete against a global audience of other players to see who can develop the top-ranked star. Moreover, the game takes a page from alternate-reality gaming (you remember our coverage of ARGs, right?) and lets the elements of the game seep into the player’s everyday lives. Characters from the game communicate with the player by text and video, radio broadcasts cover the happenings from around the league, and even the tabloids are (reportedly) willing to dedicate headlines to the events that transpire within the game.

Admit it. You’re impressed.

While we could keep raving about how cool this will be, we do need to bring this back to marketing, right? Easy enough. It’s not especially surprising to see Nike jump all over this opportunity, snagging a principal sponsorship that will see them integrated into the storyline and game experience. And, while the game itself is free to play, players will have numerous opportunities to purchase (branded) virtual products that will improve their performance. (Considering the nightlife angle, it will be interesting to see just how risque those partnerships get.)

But, even if this particular game isn’t an appropriate fit for your brand, there are many lessons to be learned from this ambitious project. While there’s a literal connection to our Game On! trend, the more compelling angle is seeing how the creators have brought Life in the OOC to life. Thanks to the game’s multi-platform media integration, and the fact that competitions on the virtual field feed into the leaderboard against other human competitors, there is no clear line where the game ends and the player’s “real life” begins. Even though your average marketing campaign isn’t quite this fun (okay, it’s a LOT less fun), it should still be this seamlessly integrated across a variety of touchpoints. Notice that the creators aren’t hand-wringing over whether they need a mobile strategy or an above-the-line component or an online element. Instead, they’re pulling together an arsenal (yeah, pun intended) of high-tech and low-tech touchpoints to communicate a common story, and letting the players (i.e. the consumers) decide which formats work best for themselves.

I AM PLAYR, I am impressed. (For anyone who wants to read more, head this way.)

Yes, yes, YES! After months (years?) of showing you amazing projection mapping projects from around the world, we’ve finally got a domestic example to share with you! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S… wait, what? This projection was shown in London, too? Ah well, we’ll take what we can get.

Actually, we’re not at all disappointed in Ralph Lauren’s display outside of their New York City flagship store. After hosting a swanky champagne reception on site, attendees stepped outside to check out the spectacle shown above. The presentation was part of the tenth anniversary of the brand’s innovation-focused website, but the content covered plenty of bases. There’s a bit of a virtual runway show, a handful of interesting product displays (including some clever uses of belts and ties – yes, it’s possible), and a featured spot for their Big Pony line of fragrances. The latter piece (starting at the 5:35 mark of the video) was accompanied by a whiff of the cologne for those in attendance, which RL touted as the fourth “D” in a 4D performance. (I guess if you smell that good, you’re allowed a little leeway in your physics classes.)

And while it wasn’t part of the projection performance, we should add that the Big Pony line is encouraging their Facebook fans to create their own commercial spots from their clips of well-dressed, well-chiseled, and well-groomed people having a well and good time on the polo field. As we called out during the Gap logo debacle, allowing your fans to get creative with your curated content gives them a chance to express themselves, while setting boundaries on what would otherwise be a Consumer Controlled Conversation.

Taken all together, these efforts demonstrate a digital savvy that’s leaps and bounds beyond the brand’s marketing peers. In fact, there’s probably a polo analogy that’d sum this up nicely… but I haven’t a clue what it would be.

Since we’ve been adamant about the often-neglected marketing potential of online videos (both the streaming and pre-recorded kinds), we’re glad to see marketers pushing the limits of what this medium can offer.

We’re also glad (and a bit shocked) that a marketer finally figured out how to deliver a compelling ad via Chatroulette. Lionsgate’s campaign for The Last Exorcism took to the service with a fool-proof way to capture the attention of young men: a girl teasing them with the prospect of a little, um… “show and tell.” Unfortunately for the guys, she’s also got a little issue with… well, you’ll see in the clip above. (Thanks to Mary van de Walle for the tip!)

Trivial Pursuit is in the middle of a much bigger undertaking over at Youtube, as part of a campaign for their new version of the game in which you bet against your peers. For most of us, our peers don’t include big-name celebrities. Heck our peers don’t even include barely-qualifying-as-celebrities like the Numa Numa guy or the Chocolate Rain dude. Well, Trivial Pursuit is working on the latter (but you keep working on tracking down those A-Listers champ!) via their branded Youtube channel. The channel is topped with an interactive display ad that allows visitors to play a round of Trivial Pursuit, rack up some tokens, and then bet those tokens on whether a random Youtube star (such as the parents of “Charlie bit my finger” or the “world’s worst ninja”) can answer the question correctly. If you bet correctly, your chips go to “the people.” If you fail, the chips go to Youtube.

Still with us? Yeah, didn’t think so.

Look, we commend the folks behind the Trivial Pursuit campaign for doing something unique – this certainly cuts through the clutter on Youtube. We do wish it wasn’t so darn complicated, though. Or, maybe the payoff could’ve been better; for instance, betting correctly enters you in a sweepstakes to win a copy of the new game. Or, maybe it could’ve been more personalized via Facebook Connect, so you could bet against your friends rather than betting on behalf of whoever “the people” are. There’s definitely a good idea buried in there somewhere – the execution just needs to be tightened up a bit.

Uh, it was Snoop Dogg blowing up a branded armored truck in the Vegas desert. Well, that, and a whole lot of gangsta mugging for the camera.

Remember when we told you that, dude, viral marketing to dudes is easy? This is some pretty strong evidence for that argument: celebrity + explosion = humongous hit. But, it also sets the bar pretty low. If this video “event” is hitting 2 million views, what’s the ceiling going to be for better content?

But, there’s no reason to think these principles are restricted to the offline world. While touch, smell, and taste are (hopefully) inaccessible online, clever digital marketers can still take sight and sound to their indulgent extremes. And, few know how to “indulge the senses” quite as effectively as burlesque star Dita von Teese. So, placing her in an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure-style mansion is a sure-fire combination for an immersive digital experience.

The only thing missing in this equation is, of course… err, sparkling water? Yes, welcome to the mansion at Perrier by Dita. (“Not safe for work” might be a little strong, but considering there are interactive burlesque routines, perhaps “not advisable for work” is more appropriate.)

While the site seems like a curious fit for a sparkling water brand, that doesn’t take away from the excellent execution overall. Not only is the first-person experience displayed in a compelling manner, but the interactive elements (such as a teasing dice game with Dita and a chance to “photograph” her in the dark) ensure that the experience is not a passive one for the viewer. This level of indulgent interactivity (meaning the user experience, not the stripteasing starlet) should be the benchmark for online experiences, since they are now competing against everything from pristine iPad apps to augmented reality mobile experiences. Is your website offering a compelling-enough experience to hang with these alternatives?

Don’t forget: we also covered the topic in a more lighthearted manner in our latest Potty Posting, which is available here.

Be sure to follow Upshot on Twitter (@upshot_agency) for information on subsequent Smartshots. And, if you have marketing topics that you’d like to see us tackle (in 15 minutes!), just shoot us a message using the “submit something awesome” box to the right.